Here are the 12 finalists who will pitch for 2018 Seedstars World prize, up to $1m

Cape Town healthtech startup EM Guidance is among 12 startups that has been selected by a panel to compete later today for the title of 2018 Seedstars Global Winner, and up to $1-million in equity investment.

CEO Yaseen Khan was the last of the names to be called out for the 12 yesterday late afternoon at the SwissTech Convention Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland where the fifth annual Seedstars World Summit is taking place today (12 April). Ventureburn is in attendance.

The 12 were shortlisted out a list of 65 startups who were invited to attend the summit and which Seedstars had arrived at after spending a year and holding pitching sessions in 65 countries.

EM Guidance has developed an app and platform that can help doctors to source more reliable information on treatment guidelines and medication dosages among other things.

It’s the second time in three years that an SA startup has made it into the final 12 startups for the competition. In 2015 SA startup Giraffe was named the global winner.

The 12 finalists — who will today each present two-minute pitches in front of a judging panel at the summit — includes three other African startups — Ghana’s Agrocenta, Nigeria’s Medsaf and Cameroon’s Gifted Mom.

There were also three startups each from Latin America and Asia chosen, and one each from the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

SA startup EM Guidance is among 12 startups that will compete in the finals for the 2017 Seedstars World winner, and as chance to win up to $1-million

Seedstars World chief investment officer Charlie Graham-Brown told an audience of startups and investors ahead of the announcement of the 12, that the selection was based on an analysis of each startup’s team, talent and tech, the progress each had made since their respective regional events and meetings that they had held yesterday with investors.

In all 484 meetings between investors and the 65 startups were held yesterday, with 114 of these meetings concluding with an investor indicating their interest in investing in the startup. Seedstars calculated that these equated to deals with a potential value of about $8.8-million in total.

Speaking to Ventureburn at the summit following the announcement, Medsaf co-founder Vivian Nwakah said investors really analysed her and how she and her co-founder Temitope Awosika had put the company together.

“We found alot of investors who were in line with our vision and where we want to go,” said Nwakah.

AgroCenta (Ghana) is an online sales platform that connects smallholder farmers directly to an online market which has wider geographic size, to sell their commodities.

Junkbot (United Arab Emirates) is a do-it-yourself robotic kit which helps children to make their own robots and gadgets by recycling things around them such as cardboard, old CDs, plastic water bottles, tea or coffee cups, etc.

SayurBox (Indonesia) is an online platform providing high-quality fresh products from local farms. In a year, the business grew more than 10 times in revenue size and partnered with more than 50 farmers, having now a strong network of farmer communities and local producers.

Kargo (Myanmar) is the first trucking marketplace to bridge the gap between thousands of truck owners and emerging businesses.

EVE.calls (Ukraine) is an online SaaS platform that helps companies to sell, notify and survey their customers with an intelligent robot.

Celcoin(Brazil)turns any smartphone into a Utility Payment Terminal for bill payments, recharges, and other services. With Celcoin, anyone with a smartphone can receive over 800 utility payments, recharges, games, digital content and transportation services for customers and contacts. Celcoin comes at no extra cost and can bring in new revenue for users.

Payit(Mexico)is a secure payments platform concentrated on making it easy for people in Mexico (and soon Latin America) to pay all of their day-to-day expenses.

RedCapital(Chile)is a crowdfunding p2p lending platform through which investors obtain attractive returns at low risk and SMEs get loans at a fair rate. RedCapital has a risk predictor which allowed their investors to have zero default until today.

Medsaf (Nigeria) uses technology to make the process of buying and selling medication easy and efficient for hospitals and pharmacies worldwide. Being the trusted medication platform for Africa, it connects pharmacies and hospitals with safe and cost-effective medications.

EMGuidance (South Africa) solves a critical problem for medical professionals by aggregating medical content from regional experts in one app.

Featured image: Startup founders of the 12 finalists line up on stage yesterday (11 April) ahead of the announcement of the 2018 Seedstars World winner today.

Correction: An earlier version of this article had it as the 2017 Seedstars Global Prize, when in fact it is the 2018 Seedstars Global Prize for the 2017 series of the competition. We regret the error.

Ventureburn is a guest of Seedstars at its annual world summit which takes place today (12 April 2018) in Lausanne, Switzerland.